MABALACAT CITY— A popular tourist destination as well as a venue for students on field trips, campings and retreats has continuously defied a closure order from the sangguniang panglunsod (SP) for its failure to pay business tax since February last year.
The SP, in a unanimously approved resolution dated Nov. 29, 2012, urged Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales to “close down the operation” of Paradise Ranch, a nature and conservation park located in Sitio Monikayo, Barangay Calumpang, one of the 27 barangays of this city.
The Philippine Children’s Fund of America (PCFA) which operates Paradise Ranch represented by Erik Gomez and park administrator Roman D. Goce cited an on-going boundary dispute between this city and the municipality of Bamban, Tarlac. As a result, they now pay their business permit to the Municipality of Bamban.
However, the SP noted that Paradise Ranch has religiously paid its business permit to this newly-converted component city since it started its operations in 2007 until 2011.
The SP said that despite repeated notices, Paradise Ranch has not paid its business permit to the city since February 28, 2012.
As if to underscore that Paradise Ranch is within the territorial jurisdiction of Bamban, a satellite office of the Provincial Government of Tarlac has been put up in the park which even include an Office of Tarlac Governor Vic Yap. Signboards were also put up declaring the site as part of Tarlac.
Meanwhile, Mayor Morales said he is still exhausting all diplomatic efforts to make Paradise Ranch comply with the law.
He said he is set to talk to Gomez and Goce and iron out any differences they have with the city government. Morales said he is also appealing to Gov. Yap to respect the status quo since the boundary dispute between Pampanga and Tarlac, specifically the boundaries involving Mabalacat and Bamban, has not been resolved.
